The Art Gallery of NSW began collecting art from the Pacific region in 1962 at the instigation of our then deputy director, Tony Tuckson. Starting with purchases from commercial galleries in Sydney, the collection expanded significantly after Tuckson travelled to the Sepik region of New Guinea in 1965. The trip resulted in the first major exhibition of Melanesian art to be held at the Gallery, in 1966. One of the major lenders to that exhibition was Stanley Gordon Moriarty. Between 1968 and 1977, the Gallery acquired over 500 works from the Moriarty Collection, one of the largest and most important private collections of New Guinea Highlands art in the world.